Andrea Harris explains why Lord of the Rings is so much better than Star Wars.
Dazzling special effects are no longer sufficient to hide a weak storyline from the audience. The storyline in Lord of the Rings exposes the Star Wars “mythos” as a randomly pasted-up pastiche of old fifties sci-fi, Saturday matinee serials, rescue-the-princess fairy tales, and badly-digested kung-fu-movie pseudo-mysticism.
I thought Star Wars was just an entertaining film, and nothing more. There’s no deep philosophical meaning, and no consistant worldbuilding behind the scenes. But there was never meant to be.
Anyone that tries to make sense of the “Star Wars Universe” as a coherent world deserves to spend eternity trying to make sense of the continuity of Dr.Who.
On the other hand, LOTR was Prof. Tolkien’s life’s work. And it shows.
Star Wars is WAY better than LOTR!
You guys have no good choice of movies!
Star Wars is WAY better than LOTR!
You guys have no good choice of movies!
Star Wars is WAY better than LOTR!
You guys have no good choice of movies!
Better that LOTR, Star Wars is.
Have good choice of movies, you do not!
Hah! Great! Love it! Wonderful Logic! I sooo agree that LOTR is better than SW!
Return of the king is so awesome cant wait for rotkEE its gonna own Potter/SW/matrix put together…lotr is way better than starwars
starwars is for sily little kiddies
light sbres are just dum light bulbs yeh nice fool
yoda wat a little fag
Do understabd, by coming up with this LOTR vs Star Wars thingy, u r actually talking abt the movies. Nobody bothered to do a comparison when LOTR was just a book. Since Peter Jackson’s adaptation came out, these ‘comparisons’ mushroomed all over the net, magazines and other media.
so it is fair to say that any comparison made should be based on the movies, with the following assumptions/facts in mind:
1. LOTR movie was based on a book written in detail..the book even have a bible-like tome chronicling the creation of middle-earth (The Silmarillion). The elven and dark tongue were already welldeveloped languages (by Tolkien, NOT Jackson). The logic here is simple, ‘How on EARTH can anybody go WRONG with adapting this book?’..the answer: No, NOBODY CAN DO IT WRONG with DETAILS that Tolkien provided (excepting the animated LOTR which was never in the picture cos animation and motion picture are like two DIFFERENT genre).
2. True, WETA created impressive details for the props in LOTR. but bear in mind that the computer generated effects in the movie are actually subpar to most other hollywood offerings..such as the Star Wars prequel. the SFX tone in LOTR is simple, dark, sombre, grey, it is easy to mask and also create SFX for LOTR than say a flamboyantly varied universe (5th Element, Star Wars prequels). and despite that, LOTR still show weak SFX (especially in scenes involving the hobbits and the ents in Fangorn Forest). so, i dont see the wow factor in LOTR sfx at all…
3. Howard Shore music…while i can say that the main Fellowship theme is epic (especially the Bridge of Khazad Dum part), the same cant be said for the rest of the score…ESPECIALLY the theme for the Rohan RIders…when i heard the Rohan theme, it brought to my mind a Scottish setting..and that is WRONG…Rohans are supposed to be proud horseriding knights….not some blowpipe blowing land warriors!!! the whole soundtrack is a mess, and didnt do LOTR justice (except the aforementied Fellowship theme).
for those who say star wars are for kiddies, bear in mind that Peter jackson himself admire Star Wars…and George Lucas in return admire Tolkien, and it comes full circle…these two films are epic and wonderful in their own way..neither is greater than the other…because if one IS, these “comparisons” and “versus” thing would not have come out in the first place! as long as ppl supported either LOTR or SW, none is the greater, and all is EQUAL
LotR IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than SW, it’s pathetic!
LotR is soooooooo much better than sw, not only is it pathetic, i have over 90 reasons why lotr is better and still making them!
LOTR is the best movie. One movie to rule them all!!!
Star Wars original and new trilogy is much better as it was all made from scratch. The story is much easier and adventurous to follow. LOTR book makes LOTR so good and there isnt enough hours in the day to show the whole epic.
star wars actually has some kind of ending unlike lotr where the ring gets destroyed and frodo goes away. like there wasnt a good ending compared to how it starts. Star wars is original and requires more effort to produce then having the story already written for yah.
im not saying lotr sucks cause its one of my favorites but the film cannot produce what the story does. the weapons in star wars are unique unlike a sword or a metal shield in lotr.
Ive seen revenge of the sith and that takes filming to a whole new level. not only is the saber fighting artistic, it shows aggression and passion. LOTR has very little intense action. shootin arrows and catapults arent very interestin cause its been done. star wars is completely unique.
Overall i would give star wars the win for best movieand LOTR the best novel. a good film evolves from the book or script. lotr book is much better then the film and the star wars film is better then the book.
They are 2 unique films. u cant compare them (they are both excellent) !!!
BTW THE LIGHTSABERS DONT USE LIGHTBULBS! and lotr has men with metal swords just hacking with no sword fighting!!
LOTR is the best movie trilogy… EVER
OK star wars is good, but LOTR will wipe starwars out
Due to the fact that i’ve never actually SEEN a SW movie…while…not the whole thing atleast…I cannot say that one is better than the other. However, i’d have to say that LOTR trilogy was awsome to watch…I enjoyed it very much…especially the awsome actings from all of the cast members and the fab director! Way to go!
Give me Miyazaki’s graphic novel “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” over Dune, Star Wars, and LOTR any day: http://nausicaa.net/miyazaki/manga/nausicaacharacters.html
LOTR is obviously better than SW. If you hear the different songs that have the same relationship. (They both have the Latin singers)
For example: Star Wars:Duel of the Fates, Anakin’s Dark Deeds,LOTR: A knife in the dark, The Crack of Doom, etc.
LOTR itself is a much more emotional film than Star Wars, where in Star Wars, the only emotional scenes are; the death of Master Qui-Gon Jinn and the scene where Anakin burns on Mustafar. LOTR has much more emotional scenes: when Gandalf falls into the darkness of Moria, The Death of Boromir in Fellowship, Haldir the Elf of Lorien in Two Towers, and Theoden, King of Rohan in Return of the King. Therefore, LOTR truly shows the meaning of sacrificing things for the greater good of the future and most importantly, for peace, when Star Wars is only about people struggling with their personal feelings and betrayal, while LOTR is about; sacrifice, friendship and loyalty, sorrow and love.
The music of both Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings themselves develop very differently. While Star Wars concentrates on the duels and battles, LOTR has music concentrated on different people of middle earth, for example; Ancient Dwarvish, Elvish and the world of Men- Rohan and Gondor. These songs all have different themes, giving more depth, devotion and authenticity.
The languages spoken by both SW and LOTR characters are entirely different to each other; Star Wars has many alien languages which are quite fascinating at first, but gets extremely annoying later (eg: Tusken Raiders, Rodians, Duros) LOTR: however, has a very lovely style of languages, with the purity and beauty of the Elvish tongue, the proud and confident Dwarves, the gruesome and harsh tongues of the Orcs, and of course the English language that we all know and speak everyday.
Whilst Star Wars tracks (songs) are more focused on delivering an understanding of large armies, huge battlefields and sometimes emotional times, LOTR focuses on more areas; The titanic struggles of the good folk of Middle Earth against the might of evil, loyalty, friendship, blissful harmonies, MUCH MORE better love songs (just listen to Enya-Aniron compared to Across the Stars- the Love theme of Anakin and Obi-Wan) Love themes have to be gentle, calm and full of heart, not go to enormous high pitches.
Therefore, i believe i have clearly made my case that Lord of the Rings is a far more compelling story than Star Wars.
(Also, Lord of the Rings IS the 2nd most purchased book after the bible in the entire world)
a movie is NOTHING without a good, focused and undraggy plot (like that of sw). Above everything else, a epic of a movie must have one thing: emotion. You can cram all the special effects u want and end up with a matrix, another happy movie, not an epic. sw had the special effects but left little attachment to the heart and memory because it felt emotionless, or should we say, the movie had made the fatal mistake of letting the special efects override the characters and relationships. like my dad says:’ why on earth would u watch a movie for the the touchy-feely stuff?’ he is right in a way; we watch movies just for the amusement, but i believe that the lotr trilogy was much more than that. It connected and pulled at the heartstrings of millions, it displayed not only the big special effects but the stuggle between the charaters and their sacrifices and relationships. lotr is what makes an epic story, a mark of cinimatic feat, a true classic that will last through the ages- an epic, not just a movie.
LOTR is better than SW, but I’m not going to say SW isn’t good. I admit, if I had to choose between the 2, I would immeditly(Did I spell it rite?) say LOTR.
I disagree with John’s selection of the better music score. John Williams has made music that is much larger and much more dramatic than that of Howard Shore. I’m not saying that The Return of the King soundrack wasn’t brilliant because it was, but the Star Wars music has had a lot more going for it. The best symphonic masterpiece I know of is the Star Wars score. John Williams has more variety than Howard Shore
Lightsabers are cooler and more original than just using swords. History within mythology can be a boring subject. Star Wars is the best mythology. LOTR has a lot of boring scenes. Star Wars has a faster pace almost all of the time. Star Wars doesn’t have 11 endings in 3 movies, but 6 endings in 6 movies. With Star Wars, you can watch just one of the movies and love it, and then watch the rest and love it more. None of the individual LOTR movies are able to stand on their own.
The characters in Star Wars are better. In 20 years, no one is going to care about whatever it was that FRODO did. Luke Skywalker is much less annoying than Frodo. Frodo is such a weener in the movies that he wines which are ALL of them. Heck, Frodo is about as good as Jar-Jar Binks. Plus, there is no other character in the history of mythological story-telling that can top our favorite wookie. CHEWIE!! GRWLWLWLWLWLWLW!
Vader could so kick the crap out of Sauron. Sauron has his evil magic, but there is no force stronger than the one that binds everything in the galaxy together.
So those are just some of the reasons why I think Star Wars is far superior than LOTR. If anyone debates my reasons, I shall return and topple every one of your thoughtless arguments.
READ THIS
I wanted to mention that the acting in episodes 1 2 and 3 is sooooooo bad. Espeacially the dialog in the revenge of the sith. I quote this
Ani; your buitifull
pad:thats only because im i love
a:no its because im in love with you
Now if someone can give me a logical explenation to that then i might consider exepting it. The special effects and corriography of star wars are amazing but if we are judging the entire film than LOTR is soooo better. Lest we forget that it was a book to start. I myself go in and out between liking either. At this moment im in beetween and im more into spiderman ect.
I don’t care about the dialog that was written. People say dumb things in real life too. Dialog isn’t that important in telling a good story. I’m looking more at the performances of the technical crew, not the silly actors. Natalie sucks, but George Lucas is way cooler than Peter Jackson. The Indiana Jones movies are also better than LOTR.
For you people that say that LOTR is better, let me ask you this question. Has there been a movie in your life that was so out of this world that it made you want to become a filmmaker? I’ll bet it sure wasn’t LOTR. Star Wars was the movie that made me want to do what George Lucas does. In this, I really don’t believe that the rest of you love movies as much as I do. Therefore, my opinion is superior to yours.
Johhy Boy, you’re fricken moron!
Lightsabers are made with plasma, not lightbulbs. DUHHHHHHH!!!!!
You must have not seen Episode 2 for making a statement against Yoda like that. I’ll rephrase that: You must have not seen any Star Wars movies to be making a statement like that. Gandalf is the fag. Seriously, the guy that plays him is homo.
I don’t much care for dialog in movies either but seriously the dialog in star wars is really really bad. It makes me care. And the storyline to starwars is quite stereotypical while though LOTR is stereotypical, thats because they both pretty much started the stereotype.
By the way, would it really matter if the guy that plays gandalf is a homo? Tom Cruise is DEFFINETLY a homo but that doesnt change the way people look at those films. maybe im going of topic.
The point is that LOTR was a book that came before starwars. As i said before i flicker in and out between the two and so do my friends and i have come to the conclusion that THEY ARE BOTH COMPLETELY EQUAL. otherwise why would there be discussion things about it if the majority liked one?
YOUR ALL WRONG
im going to be harassed now
Shut Up The Puppet King! Didn’t you see johnnyboy try to slam Yoda by calling him a fag. Since Ian really is gay, johnnyboy was just asking for it.
starwars is for shallow tw@ts and yes….
lightsabres are just cgi lightbulbs
the aliens in starwars are seriously retarded like that blue elephant and thing that looked like kermit the frog and wtf does…
WANAH WANAAHWANGA mean!!
i could go on and on about how starwars shouldnt even be compared to middle earth in general
ok…
i have a m8 over the road…hes a good m8 and that its just im chillin out playin wow the burning crusade doin some quests in hellfire peninsula
and he comes round to get some weed
but then as usual has to start bashin the game!!
1st of all he sees the game and says…
“so this game is basically a ripoff of zelda then”
err wat u mean i say
“well the 1st world(azeroth he means)was all foresty and stuff(even tho it wasnt just forests at all)
and its like copyin zelda levels like 1st being forest,next level caves etc”
oh right ok… so all this fantasy stuff came from zelda then..
“yeah”
so it wasnt ppl like tolkien and lewis then….
no it was zelda..thats right all fantasy DnD came from zelda
then im walkin in game thru a place called the dead scar…basically a scar in the land that is all dead and even plant life cant grow there
cuz of some past reason to do with the blood elves magics goin wrong or something and he says
“the dead scar!!thats a ripoff of the “death star”
….
ok then!!
so there u have it peeps a starwars fans unknowing oppinion of fantasy in general..it all comes from zelda so nintendo really created lotr
u see the retardedness im dealin with here….
also starwars fans seem to think anyone who likes or appriciates the lotr films carry a “precious” in there pocket mainly cuz kevin smith dictates it in clerks 2
that is bull…. i like lotr but i dont carry a gold ring around neither do most or all other ppl who like lotr
however i do have a friend at work who actually goes to carnivals,parades and partys!!
dressed as a stormtrooper!!!!
i need say nothing more…
except starwars should take its multi-coloured,lightsabre,laserbeam,backflipping droidsh@t dialogue for the stupid and go back to shallow-end of the movie making genepool
ps
i am not jonnyboy
i just agree with jonnyboy about lightsabres
also check out youtube…george lucas as directed by george lucas
sorry i was distracted in last post
thats lotr as directed by george lucas
doh!!haha
I believe SW is better than LOTR for many reasons. Here are 10
10: Unique weapons (Ya Hear that, Pete? UNIQUE)
9: Swordfighting. Each SW Character has a different style, heavy with unique emotions. (AKA. Anakin vs. Dooku–Episode III, and Windu vs. Sidious–Also III. Take the chopping knives to the kitchen, please.)
8: Clones have brains, unlike Uruk-Hai.
7: More emotion.
A: SW. Qui-gon’s death, “Master or apprentice?”, Bombed Naboo ship, Jedi-Chancellor Debate, Bug Assasination Scene, Couruscant Chase, Kamino Inspection, Obi-Dooku Confrontation, Assembly Line, Arena Execution scenes, Arena Battle, Jango’s Death, Jedi-Dooku battle, Yoda-Dooku Battle, Clone wars Debate, Clone inspection, Marriage scene…And that’s in the first two! Now times by 3.
B: LOTR: Weathertop scene, Ring scene-Carahdras, Frodo-Aragorn Scene–Amon hen, Death of Boromir, Tacky love scene-TTT, “–FOTR, Death of Haldir, Mithrandir light beam,And End of all things. Everything else didn’t strike too hard.
6: Better music. SW has a whole symphony for the Senator’s inspection of clones. Lord of the Rings has a horn.
5: Tackiness of ents, along with huorns!
4: Gollum’s words, sucky they are.
3: Hobbits. Girly. ‘Nuff said.
2: Frodo seems whiny…unbelievably…more than the Skywalker generations
1: Mass-murder teddy bears
About #10…I MEANT THE WHOLE BLADE!!!!!
And you think mass-murdering teddy bears is a *good* thing?
And name me anything in LOTR that’s remotely as annoying as bloody Jar-Jar Binks.
Gollum
Frodo
Pippin
Ents
Aragorn
Orcs
Uruk-Hai
Theoden
Arwen
Saruman
Wormtongue
Can your LOTR Hobbits take down a hulking tank with 3 inches of Titanium? Or, do they rely on a rohirrim rider to take on some cloth?
Very dirty cloth, at that
Music Selection example
Death of Hero(es)
LOTR: http://nevrast.net/gallery/details.php?image_id=1318
SW: http://musicby.jw-music.net/download.php?url=midi/anakinbetrayal.mid
Check both out
Teddy bears destroying a tank with a couple of bloody *tree trunks*. That’s not ‘kewl’, that’s plain silly. This is why LOTR is better than SW.
Hey!
A) Ultra-Killing War Machines (Animals) were taken down by dead guys!!
An orc…yes, one stupid orc…killed 4 well-trained Gondor Soldiers!
An 8 foot washing-machine-nightmare was pwned by a 3 foot boy with medical foot problems!
A flaming–literally and figurativley–against the whole of middle-earth…with some drunken guys who took illegal drugs obviously.
…and he almost wins!
B) It takes about five snowspeeders to slay a 40-foot caulking madness of a machine…
and the Empire has upteen of them
A stormtrooper take down 2 or so rebels before dying…Reasonable numbers
An enraged young man kills a 7-foot mechanical weapon-of-a-man after destroying a small-moon-sized Death Star
An old sith lord with lightning can kill an eye…and its drunk henchladies..HA!
GO, EWOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Storm troopers suck and have what looks like lego for armour.
Vader has a bellend for a helmet!
Star Wars is better!!!!! Really I think that. I`m very fan of Star Wars because is a great movie than LOTR.
But why is Star Was so much better?
SW is better because:
Emotions–Emotions are much fuller in SW. It does not just limit at love, anger, and envy. It has also the haunting feelings of anguish and distrust.
Melee–Why do the characters in LOTR only chop? If it was like SW, Aragorn’s blade would be the heavy strokes of nobility, Eowyn’s a hating sabre cutting through the dirty cloth of an invisible warrior. The swordplay in SW is different from the classic chop an’ hack.
Music–music…
glowsticks fights suck
and the music in lotr is way better
you can tell blockhead has no life
This post is four and a half years old, and it’s still getting comments. Most of them do seem to be from Blockhead…
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I completely disagree with Star Wars being better than Lord of The Rings. Perhaps Star Wars may have been great in the 70′s and 80′s but Lord of The Rings is epic. I’m not discrediting Star Wars for the simple fact that it is older than the Lord of The Rings movies, but in all defense Lord of The Rings was around far before Star Wars by at least 20 years. So Star Wars being the “Original Trilogy” is completely false, unless you are speaking of the movies.
I personally dislike Star Wars for the simple fact I really don’t understand it. I try watching the first movie and it just describes what is going on in the movie. It gives me no history of how this happened it just thrusts me into space.
Lord of The Rings on the other hand is great because it fills me in on everything that has happened up to the point of the story. The characters come to life with their heritage and everything. It is just a great story. If you dislike Lord of The Rings may I suggest you read the books before you pass judgment upon it?
think of it this way if all of LOTR had a war against all of SW we can kinda guess what the outcome would be. but it would be intesting admitadly. the toughest things SW would face would be the RingWraiths and the beasts in that appear in LOTR. Just as my opinion i like a LOTR kinda theme in films with sword fighting and mythical stuff. so i would say LOTR is better. but i must admire SW for the cool affects in it and fight scenes.
I like LOTR better than sw but they are on my top ten fav movies.Lotr is first and SW is third (X-men can beat SW anyday! HA!) 0.0 ahem….anyway Lotr got more box office scores than SW did so clearly to the public LOTR is better.But everyone has their favorites. *Except I think LOTR And x-men beat SW) Ahem….no one heard that.